Cleveland Museum of Art

Post-Mortem on Pillow

Date

c. 1855

Medium

ambrotype, tinted, sixth plate

Culture

America

Department

Photography

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Children have always been particularly cherished subjects for photography. Portraits were made to preserve the memory of their stages of growth and, in an age when long-distance travel was rare, to share with faraway relatives. And, for a sadder reason: in 1840 an estimated one-third of children died before age five. Photography offered grieving parents the opportunity to immortalize their children’s features. This tragic genre of photographs, later called “post-mortems,” often depicts the children in fine clothing, laying down with eyes shut, as if merely napping.

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